CANTERBURY - DR. GIL HAAS, SAINT AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, OKLAHOMA CITY

This is Our Story

Roads from three Roman ports in southeastern England converge on a junction now called Canterbury.  "To canter" comes from this town's name which describes a gentle gallop that Western riders call a "lope".  St. Augustine, whose feast day was May 26th, was asked to convert the English to Christianity by Gregory the Great.  Augustine designated the small church in Canterbury as his first cathedral after becoming  Archbishop of the English in 602 AD.  Augustine's plan was to establish a national church governed by two equal archbishops each having twelve bishops under them.  Augustine became the first archbishop of the south with his see in Canterbury, and Ecgbert became archbishop of the northern see at York.  Although Augustine envisioned an equal sharing of ecclesiastical power, from the beginning, Canterbury was the senior of the two.  This was because the southern jurisdiction included London, the center of English royal power.  Because of this political reality, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s permanent residence was built at Lambeth on the south bank of the Thames opposite Westminster.  Building the current Canterbury Cathedral was begun after the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066 and his appointment of Lanfranc as archbishop.  

​~Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church, Oklahoma City